This morning 11 followers of the democratic
dream of an accountable Pacifica entered the offices of Epstein,
Becker and Green at 2 Embarcadero, Suite 1650, in San Francisco.

The people who came to declare to Epstein,
Becker and Green (EBG) today that the people's radio will not
be destroyed by a union-busting, greedy capitalist gang rode the
elevator to the 16th floor and then walked in to present to the
scurrying secretaries and smug attorneys hiding behind their glassed
in offices a Fax for them to send.

The Fax, printed on a pink slip of paper,
was a letter of resignation by John Murdock from the Pacifica
Board for the crimes of conflict of interest, illegal rewriting
of Pacifica's bylaws and for the illegal and immoral firing and
banning of workers at WBAI. The Fax had a line for John's signature.

We said we would not leave until they had
faxed it to him, he had signed it and he had faxed it back to
us. As the attorney who spoke to us and his henchwoman could not
convince us to leave in the interim, first security and then the
San Francisco police were called to quell the "occupation"
by "65" protesters, as they were told. We all sat down,
along with several observers and began to explain, in very loud
song, chant and stomping that John Murdock has got to resign from
the Pacifica Board.

We explained that though this may be the
first time it won't be the last time that listeners would express
this demand as we were doing today, and that they had better become
used to it - or they could persuade John to quit the Pacifica
National Board. It was very simple.

For an hour we made as much noise and attempts
to convey our outrage to the huddled yuppies at the other end
of the office as possible, overseen by at the moment jovial San
Francisco police, one of whom complained that he couldn't get
KPFA in well enough up in Sonoma where he lived. Aaron Glantz
explained to him that Sonoma would already have its own KPFA News
Bureau, if John Murdock and the PNB weren't stealing all our money
for these scum-licking union-busting law firms like Epstein, and
its conflict-of-interest-ridden John Murdock.

We placed a good number of our flyers inside
obscure pages of the firm's law library, perhaps to be found again
by some attorney in the year 2040 when Pacifica will have long
been freed of the tyranny of these evil, grasping, greedy, filthy
money-hugging vampires who at the moment have the veneer of legality
covering their actions, but who will be defeated by our unified
resistance.

The folks who came today to the EBG offices
were Ben Clarke, Andrea Buffa, Rebekka Rodriguez, Mario Zap of
Media Alliance, Paul G., Terry Messman of the American Friends
Service Committee, Aaron Glantz of KPFA News, and John Sheridan
of the CdP. Observing were Scott Fleming of the National Lawyers
Guild and 2 other KPFA supporters.

We were not finally persuaded to leave and
were removed to a waiting police wagon and taken to the North
Beach station on Vallejo Street which the cops have wittily named
the "Golf Club and Restaurant". We were cited for trespassing,
with a court date of March 13 at the Hall of (In)justice, and
walked back through North Beach and Chinatown in the rain.

At 4PM we returned to 2 Embarcadero for
a planned protest and were joined by perhaps 50 other KPFA supporters
and staff. We picketed outside and heard words of support from
Susan Stone and Matt Martin of KPFA. Larry Bensky recorded portions
of the event. Sherry Gendelman of the KPFA LAB told us that the
LAB suit was in deposition in DC when a phone call came in telling
the attorneys there that a number of people were sitting in at
the offices of EBG in San Francisco. Attorneys working for Pacifica
called Sherry and told her to "tell her people to get out
of the EBG offices immediately". She did not order people
there so and suggested they call the EBG offices in San Francisco
and tell the people themselves. So the deposition of the toady
Bill Lucy was temporarily interrupted by the sit in.

Fed up with being kept outside the mall
area of 2 Embarcadero, it was decided to continue the protest
through the lower floor of the building. This is when the police
stepped up and said that any movement into the building area would
be met with arrests. Several people including Mary Berg, Mario
Zap and others argued that court decisions held that the "public
area" of a mall was indeed a public area and not private
property. The manager of the property told the police to move
in and they walked into the midst of the protestors and began
arresting people - Aaron Glantz and then Mario Zap both for the
second time today. They also arrested Scott Fleming who was our
legal observer in the morning sit-in, and another demonstrator
named, I believe, Greg Gerity who didn't move out of the way fast
enough and who was videotaping the demonstration. All four of
these people were immediately, to a chorus of loud shouts, taken
by police car to parts unknown where we think that at least Aaron
and Mario are still being held this evening.

A marching picket line was formed and the
protest continued for another 45 minutes or so. Pickets will continue
at 2 Embarcadero next Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11:30
-1 PM. Among our other fronts, there is a need to physically confront
Epstein, Becker and Green by the grassroots listeners wherever
they have their offices. They have rewritten the bylaws, are shutting
listeners and staff out of WBAI, continue to pack the Board, continue
to bust the unions and are setting up the network to be sold.
Will we let this happen - and will we use the airwaves to keep
the listeners informed and mobilized?

SF BAY AREA RALLIES TO SUPPORT
KPFA'S SISTER STATION IN NEW YORK, AND DEMAND THE RESIGNATION
OF PACIFICA RADIO BOARD MEMBERS WHO SUPPORTED THE WBAI TAKEOVER

San Francisco, CA--In an act of nonviolent
civil disobedience, eight free-speech activists entered the San
Francisco offices of the law firm Epstein, Becker & Green
and refused to leave until EBG attorney John Murdock resigns from
the Pacifica Radio board of directors. The activists were arrested
for trespassing. A rally in front of Epstein, Becker & Green
is planned for 4 p.m. today at Two Embarcadero Center.

The protests at Epstein, Becker & Green,
which were called by Media Alliance and the KPFA steering committee,
coincide with the one-month anniversary of the Pacifica Foundation's
hostile takeover of WBAI, its New York station. During the Christmas
holidays, Pacifica Radio national managers changed the locks at
the station, fired the program director, and banned several long-time
producers. The crackdown at WBAI mirrors almost exactly Pacifica's
1999 attack on KPFA in Berkeley, which resulted in a lockout of
journalists there, and a demonstration of 10,000 listeners to
get the station back on the air.

"The same board members who locked
out the journalists at KPFA are at it again at WBAI. People who
censor and ban journalists at their stations have no place running
the only progressive radio network in the United States"
said Andrea Buffa, executive director of Media Alliance.

KPFA activists believe that the threat to
the Pacifica Radio Network will be lifted only when the current
board of directors is reconstituted by removing members like John
Murdock. Murdock's law firm specializes in "maintaining a
union-free workplace" and is representing the Pacifica Foundation
in lawsuits that have been filed against the board by concerned
listeners. Since Murdock joined the Pacifica board, he has taken
a leadership role; it is rumored that he is being groomed to be
the next board president.

Free-speech activists staged a protest at
the Epstein, Becker offices in Washington, D.C.--where Murdock
is based--on Friday, January 19th. New York activists have been
holding regular pickets outside of the company's offices in Manhattan,
urging Murdock's employers to press him to resign from the Pacifica
board.

"Until John Murdock leaves the Pacifica
Foundation board of directors, we plan to call, email and fax
him and his colleagues at Epstein, Becker & Green to beseech
them to get Murdock to move aside and make way for free speech,"
Buffa said.